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About The IGF

IndieGames.com is presented by the UBM TechWeb Game Network, which runs the Independent Games Festival & Summit every year at Game Developers Conference. The company (producer of the Game Developers Conference series, Gamasutra.com and Game Developer magazine) established the Independent Games Festival in 1998 to encourage innovation in game development and to recognize the best independent game developers.

Archive For May, 2011

According to H.A.M Games, Parasitus is a two player side-scrolling XBox Live Indie Games title designed in the grand tradition of games like Contra and Castlevania. Featuring an extensive amount of demonic creatures and ominious landscape, it doesn't look half-bad at all. I'm not quite sure what the plot involves just yet but I'm sure we'll find out soon enough.

Those interested in knowing more can head down to H.A.M Games' development blog and check things out there.

The word 'Craft' seems to be popping up as frequently as zombies these days. CellCraft basically puts you in the shoes of a bunch of biologists hell bent on preserving the future of the Platypus species.

Wait, what? Yeaaah. It gets explained in the actual game. Really.

Being the dedicated computer science-type person, I never really had the opportunity to invest too much into the study of biology. However, from what little I remember of my high school years, CellCraft seems to have gotten their scientific facts right. The dialogue is rather amusing though I'm somewhat ambivalent about how long-winded the tutorial can seem initially. That said, I suppose it was inevitable given the topic material.

Curious? Have a biology exam you need to study for that involves single-celled organisms? You can take a peek at the game here.

Sitting in on a voice-over recording session can feel rather voyeuristic. It's intimate. It's walking on a game half-dressed. It's seeing all the important bits, not quite done up, being put together for the grand show. It was one person trying to write a personality into someone else's mind; none of the lines were being recorded in order, resulting in the need to help the actress visualize the scene properly. While this might not be true for bigger companies, it was certainly the case that afternoon at Dave Gilbert's apartment/studio. I had been invited to take a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the fourth Blackwell game but had not had the opportunity to do so up till recently.

El Eternuata is an upcoming adventure game from Argentina that is apparently based on a comic created by Hector Oesterheld German and artist Francisco Solano Lopez. According to what I scrounged up on the Internet, it appears that the story takes place in 1957 Buenos Aires. The world had been blanketed by a deadly snowfall, one that successfully extinguished most life on the planet. (Editor's note: Thank you for the catch, Anon!) Juan Salvo, along with his friends, survived thanks to the ingenuity of a character named Favalli and the protective layers of the lead character's house. I'm still not really sure how it works but it looks like there's going to be aliens. Lots of them.

The art style is rather unusual, the premise (which I successfully spoiled for myself) rather interesting. We'll definitely be keeping tabs on this. Those interested in doing so as well can check out the game's tumblr here.

Fortix 2 was first described to me as a 'reverse turret defense' game. I didn't think too much about it then but when the developers released a demo on IndieDB, I decided I had to take a gander at it.

It was a blast. A blast from the past, to be more precise. I have nebulous memories of playing something very similar to this way back in the 80s but that one didn't come with all of Fortix 2's bells and whistles or any of the gloss. The general premise behind both games is fairly straightforward. You guide your character through the map along straight lines and angles in an attempt to claim as much of the map as possible. Enemies caught within the smaller areas you've cordoned off will be instantly destroyed. Simple as it sounds, the formula works and it works rather well.

Billed as a 'game about giving instructions', Solve It - Pack 1 has also been described by some as a 'game that will murder you'. I'm not really sure how difficult it might be, personally, as I don't have an Xbox to test this logic puzzler on. However, I can definitely see how this could potentially go. Instead of directly controlling Dennis, the grumpy-looking critter that serves as the lead character here, players will have to assemble a list of commands in order to direct him to his goal.

While not the first game that Marklund Games has produced, it seems that it is, however, the first to be released. The Swedish game development studio had previously created Twang! which was responsible for winning the Dare to be Digital competition in 2010. Priced at 80 points on the Xbox Live Market, Solve It - Pack 1 is definitely a bit of a steal. Sure, the concept isn't particularly foreign to the market. However, the visuals are absolutely lovely and there are 30 stupendously difficult levels to plot your way through.

Visual novels aren't really my cup of tea. I'm not sure why. I think it has to do with the general stereotype associated with them and the fact I don't feel an explicit need to court virtual characters. Don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with that. In fact, the writing and the art can be superb. It's just, you know, not my thing. As a result, I can't, for the life of me, figure out how exactly I found out about Katawa Shoujo a long time ago. I definitely have no regrets, though.

In a nutshell, Katawa Shoujo is the story of a high-schooler named Hisao Nakai. During the introductory sequence of the game, the protagonist finds out through no uncertain terms that he has a congenital heart defect and lands in the hospital for some time. After a certain period, he is then relocated to the fictional Yamaku High School, an educational institute designated for disabled children and filled with strangely attractive peers.

Hey, it's still a visual novel. Nonetheless, Hisao Nakai's growing attraction to the variety of girls that populate the school neither feels out of place nor campy. It's a slow, hesitant thing that seems fitting of a high schooler and framed with far more curiosity than lust. More than anything, however, what I liked was the portrayal of the lead character's fight with his disease, the personalities and the fact that the various ailments suffered by the cast were not, well, fetishized.

The kind folks at Semi Secret have made the iOS version of Gravity Hook HD free to download from the App Store, but just for the next three days. Though the Flash game is still available to play on their website, it's not hard to admit that playing Gravity Hook HD feels much more natural and accurate with touch-based controls.

We've written about both HD and original version numerous times in the past, and though it's a bit old by now booting up the game for a few more plays is still an excellent way to pass time on the bus or the train. You can find and download the iOS port of Gravity Hook HD from the App Store by going here.

One of my favorite Nitrome games in a long time, Silly Sausage puts you in control of a googly-eyed dog seeking to collect treasures in the shape of multi-coloured gems for points. Each room is a construction of spikes, traps, saws, and pipes designed exclusively to thwart you from succeeding. This is where the dog's ability to extend, retract and grab wall surfaces will prove to be useful - holding the cursor key causes it to reach out in any direction desired by the player, and the dog will automatically grab hold of a non-metallic tile when pressed against a wall.

Once you've collected all of the gems in a room, it's time to reach out for the black-and-white checkered spot to proceed to the next level and find more treasure to loot. You have only three lives to spare for each stage, so if you lose them all you will be forced to replay the same area from the start.

What to say about this one... well, after spotting it over at Rock Paper Shotgun, there was no way I wasn't giving it a go. Then it proved to be more than I could have ever dreamed of. Japan World Cup 2 will make you scream 'WHAT IS THIS', but with a huge grin on your face.

There's a fair bit of Japanese to sift through, but it's simple enough to work out what to click and how to work it. The game is essentially a betting affair, as you guess which 'horse' is going to come in first in each race. Except that you stop really caring about whether you're winning or not, and concentrate solely on the racers.

I'm not sure on the developer name, so if anyone can read Japanese and can let me know, that would be most excellent. Give it a go over at the official site.